Author's Note

I know I said this fiction was a Gaara-OC (non-romantic) relationship… but Katiya's over in Oto right now… for maybe 2-3 arcs (a span of about four years), so you're probably wondering why or when this Gaara-OC relationship will happen… and all I can say is a) an indirect effect of a relationship counts in my mind, b) expect a few time skips coming up, and c) PATIENCE.

Chapter 21

Katiya (approximate time: 6:00 PM)

Katiya, remembering her fight with Guren, began imbuing her chakra into approximately four liters of the ambient water around her as she moved towards her target's cell. Ushi, hebi, hitsuji, tori, saru, tori, hitsuji. Sensing Mist Jutsu, Katiya chanted in her mind as she formed the hand signs.

She had learned much from that fight with Guren—even if the latter woman was a sordid character with emotional control comparable to a toddler—the only real reason why Katiya chose to leave her behind when approaching what she assumed to be a Gaara-like person. The importance of imbuing chakra into ambient water, one of the lessons she learned.

Rather than the Hidden Mist Jutsu she based it on, the Sensing Mist Jutsu she custom made allowed her to "see" with her mist. As the mist was much thinner, she could see with her eyes. And with the jutsu, she could also "see" by amplifying her limited sensory ability to include the area covered by her chakra-imbued water droplets despite her not being a sensory type herself. It was a weaker but less passive jutsu, occupying less water but requiring more chakra control than the already simple D-rank Hidden Mist Jutsu; one she found much more useful as it allowed her to feel around corners and doors using the water's location on a surface.

She approached the cell she knew to hold the boy she was after. Down the hall and around the corner approximately fifteen meters from the cell, she sent the water to check on the state of the boy—Jugo—who she knew was behind the giant metal door opposite her. Dispersed thinly enough so as not to create a visible mist, she had droplets of water slide under the door to feel his form. He was knelt in meditation behind bars, behind said door, a ball and chain around one of his ankles.

He's not in "rampage mode" right now.

She pushed the water to the ceiling of the cell for safekeeping. Keeping her footsteps light, she walked slowly into view of the door. She stopped just outside the prison, the boy not moving within. She waited, listening for noise if the boy sensed her chakra from the water or through the door and became violent because of it. Hearing nothing, she pulled out the keys and opened the door slowly, keeping herself behind it as she did until the door was completely open. It was a move done to both not startle the boy, but also give her a form of cover just in case.

"Hello," she said calmly, cautiously coming out from behind the door, the cell bars of the second layer of the prison still intact. She made out the faint outline of a small copper-haired kid.

The boy, without looking up or turning to face her, asked, "Where's Kimimaro?"

Retaining a quiet and low tone of voice, she replied, "He isn't here right now I'm afraid. But I do need to draw some blood from you. I have the equipment here—would you like to do it yourself or should I assist you?"

The boy now looked up, startled. "No. No. Wait, I—errrrr—RAAHHH!" he yelled, grabbing his head as his body rapidly became covered with a glowing orange and black mass. Rage began to radiate off of him. Like the curse mark on Ryuteki's neck was familiar to Katiya, this state change was as well, if not the speed and severity of it. Katiya jumped back from the cell as his skin took on a grey hue—the indication that the transformation was complete—and a large hammer-like fist rammed out of the cell bars, breaking them.

That was fast.

She dodged as said cell bars pulled completely from their bolts and went careening for the wall behind her. She kept her eyes on the target, not on his eyes, but on his arms and legs—which were much more deadly at the moment—and much less likely to provoke aggression, as she'd learned. She inhaled, trying to calm her own heartbeat and emotions as well (controlling them, not concealing them—there was a difference), in case that had any influence on the boy's own.

"Easy, now…" Katiya said measuredly while stepping back.

"DIE!" he yelled despite the effort.

So much for that…

Temari (approximate time: 6:00 PM)

The receding sunlight made the earth of the Land of Wind's eastern ridgecrest glow a faint red. But Temari tried not to focus on the color as her sandals pounded the earth. It was so far, so good. No attacks had occurred, and they were well over a quarter of the way to the next village.

She focused on her steps as she ran. With her back bent at an angle, she had her right arm trailing behind at a "relaxed" twenty-five centimeters while her left arm held her fan steady. It was a shinobi run, designed to minimize any potential target while keeping weapons carried in hand from stabbing comrades accidentally, only modified for herself to grip her lengthened weapon to silence clattering as she ran on the bumpy road before her. It wasn't necessary at the moment since the last few legs of their journey yielded no attacks and because her weapon was rather blunt, but it was good practice.

And even though it would have likely been more comfortable and easier to run normally like a civilian on the uneven, craggily path, she'd be caught dead (literally and metaphorically) if her father or any other shinobi saw her relaxing on Suna's standard of efficacy on a mission. Still, an attack was just as likely to happen after the delivery of their package, en route back to Suna rather than the next village outpost. It was to the benefit of everyone if every member were ready for an attack.

Temari thought as she ran, occupying her mind as her legs began to ache and her throat burned from having the acrid Land of Wind air draw repeatedly over it so rapidly. This is a C-rank mission—escort, out of the village, no shinobi-shinobi interaction.

But that only meant shinobi from other villages. So if a squad of Suna-nin pass us, we, legally, don't need to engage… But if we attack back after they attack us, it'll be an internal thing, to be sorted out by the Kazekage for who gets disciplined and how harshly. Father's not likely to punish either of us for any wrongdoing, considering how Suna is now.

But civilians? What then? If they attack us, we retain the right to defend ourselves… but if Gaara kills them, and civilian bystanders, who metes out the punishment? The Council or the Kazekage?

Temari shook her head, swallowing the thought. Did it really matter?

It matters if we get another rampage… she mentally responded to herself.

Temari skirted around a rocky outcropping, following closely behind her sensei. She turned to check on Kankuro, who was keeping up with her.

"Heh, tired yet?" Kankuro asked between breaths.

Temari returned her focus to her steps. "Like hell I am."

Kankuro eyed her carefully, "Something on your mind, then?"

Temari leapt over a boulder before skidding easily for a few meters and resuming her run.

"If we get attacked from another Suna-nin, all parties get off with a slap on the wrist… If we get attacked by civilians, I'm wondering if we face any disciplinary action if we kill them, or worst… we kill them without provocation on a mission."

"By 'us,' you mean 'him,' right?"

Temari didn't deign to respond, instead returning to her original train of thought. If we kill them with provocation, it'll probably go to the Council, who sends it to the Kazekage… still a slap on the wrist for us… but what about Gaara? And without provocation? … same thing?

"I reckon it's the same thing—all through the Kazekage… doesn't really matter either way, right?" Kankuro voiced.

Temari gave her brother a withering glare. "You want a repeat of the last time?"

Kankuro winced. "Father managed to subdue him," he said, assuring himself.

Temari frowned. "We weren't on missions with him last time."

Father isn't here with us now. Temari gritted her teeth. The one thing our father the Kazekage can actually do for us, Temari disparaged. Subdue the monster he made.

Kankuro glanced at Baki, who continued several paces ahead, ignorant of the conversation occurring, or simply ignoring it. Kankuro then looked to the horizon pensively. "I don't think we need to worry too much—Baki-sensei can take care of it if he gets out of hand on a mission… and… I'm pretty sure no one's gonna mind if a few rogue Suna-nin that attacked us—or any other crazy civilian for that matter—suddenly disappeared."

Temari simply blinked. Hopefully Baki-sensei can do it before either of us get caught in Gaara's sand jutsu.

Katiya (approximate time: 6:05 PM)

She dove behind the outer metal door that still stood attached to its hinges as he rushed out. She abandoned her own attempted meditation and her attempt to calm the boy. Neither seemed to work and without any real connection to the latter, she doubted it would. She wasn't willing to risk her life at the moment trying either.

Note number one: Jugo not equal Gaara; my emotional control not equal his emotional control.

The boy she was facing moved to charge, his fist swinging wildly until it found itself embedded in a large crater on the floor of the hallway. The walls rattled.

Note number two: don't get hit.

She positioned herself in front of the open cell, recalling the information from the info card Kabuto gave her—enhanced strength and multi-form shape-shifting, check. She pulled out three kunai with her right hand and four senbon with her left. She wanted to check the extent of his "impenetrable skin." She flung both at the boy's body, which was still hunched over the crater. All of them clattered to the floor upon impact with his skin.

Note number three: skin is impenetrable with both semi-blunt and pinpoint projectiles… No weak spots in the armor...

Jugo glared at her with a look of anger, the only describable thing his killing intent projected.

Thinking back to the other information Kabuto had given her and her own experience with Guren, she knew the other two members of her team were more than strong enough to take Jugo down—one due to her kekkei genkai, and the other due to her own curse mark and what she presumed to be skill with genjutsu, based on her flute. The reasons why they were brought in the mission in the first place, she assumed. But as Katiya had neither and was not going to use her Sharingan for obvious reasons, she was also at a much higher disadvantage compared to them.

Jugo turned to face her and the cell behind her. Growling and pulling his arm out, he morphed the other into a drill-like projection. Katiya readied her legs to charge.

"RRRAAAHHH!" he yelled, heading towards Katiya.

She ran to meet him, using her momentum and his outstretched arm to vault herself into a frontflip over her target as he attempted to punch her. He noticed the movement, and extended his other arm to grab her during the flip, but Katiya had tucked herself into the smaller target of a ball until landing. Still running after landing, she only pivoted once she was at the end of the hallway.

Can I use any fire-styles? Katiya wondered. They were her strongest nature type, being her natural affinity, but she hadn't yet used them for the same reason she had not yet discharged any explosion tags: the excessive amount of smoke that would limit her vision in the close quarters. Not to mention the possibility of destabilizing the entire base.

Water Prison Jutsu? she tried, thinking of a different tactic.

She brought a hand to one of her hip pouches. The issue was, a Water Prison Jutsu required contact with its caster, which Katiya didn't want to risk. And there was the other issue of her Water Prison Jutsu having not ever been employed before that day.

Jugo snorted and shook his head, stamping another crater into the ground like he was a giant bull. Shaking his head, he hollered, "COME ON! STAY STILL SO I CAN KILL YOU!"

He pounded the ground, destabilizing her. Katiya did a series of backflips to avoid the rather large fissures that were created from the impact.

Katiya lifted her hand up mid-flip for the water she had tucked in the cell. She didn't need an entire prison, not really. She just needed to cover his head and she'd be able to incapacitate him by starving him of oxygen. And she could do that from a distance thanks to those scrolls from Taki. As she landed finally, Jugo charged again. She took another evasive maneuver before pushing his head in a bubble. When his back was turned from her, she picked up one of her fallen kunai to rethrow it. This time with an explosion tag attached. The water's location indicative of Jugo, she needn't worry about her vision being obstructed.

BOOM.

Removing her staff from her back now, she followed up with a Wind Scythe Jutsu to both dissipate the smoke and knock the air out of Jugo if he was still standing.

The smoke dissipated. And Jugo was on his knees and was appearing to be drowning. Katiya counted the seconds.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

Katiya frowned. Jugo was attempting to pound into the ground with one of his fists while screaming within the bubble—actions she didn't quite understand. If anything, it only served to waste more oxygen...

The thumping stopped and Jugo emanated an ominous hissing noise.

The arm formerly pounding in the ground whipped out behind, extending and clipping Katiya in the shoulder. She collided with the wall with a loud thud.

Temari (approximate time: 6:10 PM)

The next village came into view as the group left the ridge. Temari looked behind her, and was surprised to see the form of Gaara keeping up with them despite not having a bead of sweat on his face. She looked at the revolving plume of sand behind him. He's using his sand to move himself forward, she realized with a gulp.

Nearing the village now, they began slowing down, noticing a moderately large crowd of that appeared to be robbers gathered in front of the village. Baki's steps ground to a halt when they were just over 300 meters away. Temari stopped beside him, analyzing the crowd. Kankuro slowed to a stop as well.

"Got a nice welcoming party there," he said sarcastically, "They for us or him?"

Temari squinted, trying to make out some of the details of them, such as their weapons. She noted how the majority of them wielded short range weapons like swords and shabby wooden clubs, and none of them bows and arrows or Suna-standard weaponry. They clearly were not shinobi. Temari sneered. It would be an easy victory if they were after the artifact, or Gaara, even without the latter with them.

"Wait," Baki-sensei said, "They could be this village's equivalent of border patrol."

Kankuro let out a derisive snort beside his sister. "Don't look like much."

"Awfully untrained and pathetic looking for that, don't you think, Baki-sensei?" Temari said instead. "Surely, they'd hire shinobi for that."

Baki grunted in affirmation, "Most civilians in this area are… and unfortunately, no."

Temari's nose wrinkled. Border patrol for another village would have been a perfect long-term well-enough-paying C-rank that Suna was in desperate need of. But if the village was neither able nor willing to hire Suna-nin nor Konoha-nin and needed it, it boded badly on the state of their nation—side effects of the last war and the decisions of their foolish daimyo.

"Well, what do we do then?" Kankuro asked. "If they're border patrol and we charge them, we might piss them off for no reason and ruin our standing with the village—bye bye missions from them; if they're robbers after the artifact and we don't charge them, we might damage the thing."

Temari looked to her sensei. "I say we get closer—but maintain long-range attack distance. It'll be the only way we can tell exactly what those people are."

Baki looked over his shoulder while humming in agreement with his young strategic mind. "Hopefully the decision of what we do with them remains under our control."

The siblings exchanged glances, understanding, and then continued forward at a slower pace. She hoped for Gaara's sake they were robbers.

Katiya (approximate time: 6:10 PM)

Katiya extricated herself from the wall with a groan. Her mouth tasted of blood, and she hazarded a guess that she had cracked a few ribs, possibly her left elbow, dislocated at least one of her shoulders, and had gotten concussed despite attempting to flood chakra to her skin to make it more impact-ready. She coughed, clearing her throat of blood, but possibly damaging her lungs further.

Her body burned with agony, and what didn't burn ached. Her vision swam, bringing bile into her throat from the nausea—worse than that of the ANBU's poison back then. She sucked in a shallow breath, feeling the pressure and sharp pain as her ribs poked her left lung. She released the breath with a sharp exhale and then put a hand over them to use the Mystical Palm Technique and force her own chakra network to reconstruct the area and push the broken ribs back out, sealing the holes made in her lung while doing so.

She coughed once more, fighting the urge to wheeze that would reopen the rushed healing. It was a patchy job—but all she figured she could do before Jugo attacked again. Looking at him now, she noticed had somehow managed to maintain the chakra in her water—despite the water globule over Jugo's head itself having burst… But it wasn't the water falling to the ground from her earlier impact that allowed Jugo to attack her like that—no, rather, Jugo had adapted to form gills.

Shapeshifted gills, Katiya mentally face palmed.

Jugo gasped for air, the gills now receding in a glow of volcanic orange as the change in pressure sealed them and his body readapted for gaseous oxygen.

Taking Jugo's current state of temporary occupancy in stride, she quickly but carefully stretched her back and pushed her dislocated shoulders into place by bracing them against the wall. Her shoulder blades ached. Rubble tumbled from her hair. Wiping her blood from her mouth, she noted how the injury she sustained turned the tips of her fingers a faintly bruised grey, presumably from internal bleeding she hadn't yet patched up.

That's going to be a pain to heal.

She withdrew her chakra from her skin and looked to her target again. Jugo, now smiling sadistically, readied his arm in the form of a giant hammer-headed hand once more, having recovered fully while she herself was still injured. Katiya closed her eyes to her swimming vision before using a Body Flicker to vacate her crater in the wall before it made impact.

She resisted the urge to hurl when she landed.

A new position now, she looked behind herself, noticing how Kabuto and Ryuteki were now on the scene at the end of the hallway, watching with interest. She hissed a small breath. If she didn't win or have enough energy to spare to move afterwards, it was possible they'd finish her off.

She fished for something in her thigh pouch that she had only started carrying since going to Oto: a vial of chakra-blocking sleep poison. She couldn't safely administer herself medical ninjutsu to restore the full function of her left hand or completely repair her ribs with the half of her focus (soon to be placed) on holding the Jugo's bubble together, but she still had one more attack plan she could use before she had to risk a hasty withdrawal to heal herself.

Getting both desperate and irritated herself, she uncapped the vial and threw it, ignoring her left side screaming in pain from the movement.

Crack!

It made an impact with the back of Jugo's skull.

She waved that same arm to reform the water bubble around Jugo's head—this time, taking the liquid of the poison with it. The weapons catalog said one smear onto a bladed weapon should have been enough to incapacitate or at least dizzy an opponent by slowing the physical energy aspect of their normal chakra flow, depending on their mass, assuming it entered their bloodstream. Considering ordinary fish gills were rich in blood-filled filaments, which separated the oxygen from the water and brought it into the body, she figured adding poison to the water a fish breathed was a good way to at least incapacitate them.

… And she had just hurled an entire vial of the poison, which probably would have put any ordinary shinobi into at least a coma… But Katiya was not at all concerned about that happening to her shapeshifter nature-chakra wielding target with an adaptable mass.

Jugo turned towards her direction and began to lumber towards her. Katiya dribbled some of the water from her bubble onto the floor, increasing the concentration of the poison still floating in there. Jugo's footsteps slowed.

She receded further out of Jugo's range and waited a moment for the poison to diffuse into the bubble she had around his head. Jugo shook it, attempting to clear his vision of the purple-tinted waters, and whatever other side-effects the poison generated. But it was to no avail. The gills Jugo had formed to breathe the water couldn't adapt to the new change so quickly, not to mention the fact that the poison was built to block chakra.

Jugo let out a strangled grunt, swinging his arms while blinded in an attempt to get the bubble dispelled by smacking her. But she was still out of range. He smacked at the bubble, but each time, the blows simply bounced off or moved the bubble without busting it. Three minutes. The average human could survive about three minutes without air—a shinobi maybe double that—if they didn't use chakra to artificially push down their diaphragm further rather than simply regulating it.

Watching carefully, she saw the enlarged form of the boy's rampage mode slowly shrink in on itself, his skin color returning to normal as he fell unconscious and collapsed on his knees. She waited a few seconds more. With a final wave of her hand, her water bubble splashed to the floor. Silence. It was four minutes after she had formed the bubble over his head, she estimated. She hobbled over to the boy, using her staff to nudge him. The boy let out a small groan and coughed up some water, but made no move to rampage again.

Alright. He's still alive, then.

Katiya flipped his body over. Locating his median cubital vein, she began pulling out the equipment for a blood draw out of one of her hip pouches and crouching down. She broke open the packages with her good hand and her teeth, then plunged in the needlepoint of a catheter attached to an empty plastic sack.

"Hmm… That went better than expected," Kabuto said, noting the ruined hallway as he approached.

Katiya focused on her work, replacing the plastic bag of blood with a new one as it filled, still refraining from using her left arm.

"I'm not sure how the poison you used will affect the test results, though."

Katiya grunted as she tossed the first filled bag of blood to Kabuto, who caught it with one hand. "You can extract blood out of a living person. You can do it to a sack of blood," she wheezed tiredly.

Author's Note

The fish gill thing is pseudoscience, a bit (kind of "duh"). Fish gills work by pulling dissolved oxygen out of the water they "breathe" via blood-filled filaments... and I read an article on cyanide being used to kill or at least stun fish by it preventing hemoglobin from being able to carry oxygen so the whole chakra-blocking thing is sort of kind of based on that. Except with chakra… instead of oxygen… however that might work…

Gaara (approximate time: 6:20 PM)

Gaara slowed his pace as his siblings did theirs. Shukaku stirred restively as Gaara drank in the scene of potential… victims.

He watched as his siblings neared the crowd. He felt the energy emanating off them—the energy of life that we wished so badly to snuff out of them. His siblings neared the inner range of long-ranged combat. The crowd moved to surround them, not noticing Gaara as he approached. Gaara glowered, Shukaku throwing himself into a frenzy.

He heard a yell from the crowd, a command to attack, and then the carnage began. Temari swung her fan, dust and sand taking to the sky, several of the robbers being thrown up into the air with lacerations from a wind scythe. Gaara didn't blink as the plume reached him, the sand that neared him becoming a part of his arsenal. Gaara reached his hand out to crush them. Their bones obliged.

Gaara grinned. Propelling himself more eagerly now, he slapped several of them aside before jabbing them with sand spears, their blood raining down into a shower. Temari's eyes widened as her youngest brother entered the fray.

Shukaku yowled, giddy, and that expression was mirrored on Gaara's face.

"Get down!" Temari yelled, pushing Kankuro into a duck as Gaara's sand claw whipped another bunch of robbers without the slightest recognition of his own team. Kankuro breathed his thanks, but Gaara didn't even notice his own brother nearly dying under his hand. Temari pulled her fan up to whack another robber Gaara missed before opening it up as a shield.

Gaara floated half a meter from the ground, a sand storm of his own creation protecting him. The remaining robbers turned to run away, but Gaara was far from done.

AfRaiD—ThEY'Re ALL AfRaiD—DoN'T yOU wAnT ThEM tO CoME tO PLaY?!?

Gaara smiled. Yes, he did. He formed tendrils out of his infinite weapon in the desert, intentionally breaking the legs of the people who ran—throwing them much closer to himself. He formed more tendrils that wrapped themselves around the robbers' other limbs.

With a feral snarl, he pulled.

Shukaku laughed. AhhhhHaahaahaha! IsN'T ThiSSSsss FuNnnn?!?

Gaara ripped the robbers apart, the blood raining down to pelt himself and his team.

Yes, it is.

Temari (approximate time: 6:20 PM)

Temari and her sibling came out from hiding under her fan. She shook her anxiety from the scene off. "Kankuro, you alright?" she asked.

Kankuro pulled himself to a stand, his puppet over his shoulders to protect them. "Yeah. You?"

Temari nodded, checking on the state of her other brother. He was much closer now than he was before, the whites of his bloodshot eyes visible. She swallowed. She could not look away from the destruction every shinobi was employed to face. If anything, it was better them than her. She breathed, steadying her voice and hiding all emotion. "Gaara. You alright?"

Gaara breathed deeply, inhaling the metallic scent that filled the air. His crazed bloodshot eyes met his sister's. There was no verbal reply, but Temari took that glance as a "yes" as she concealed her own fear and disgust. Silently, she purposely lamented at how she would have to clean blood stains out of her clothing when she herself could have handled the situation much more cleanly. To distract herself. To harden her heart into the one of the shinobi her father preferred.

She slowly tucked her fan under an arm but did not stow it back in its holster. She was still ready for a fight if Gaara needed to be held off until Baki made his way back onto the scene.

She continued to meet Gaara's gaze, quietly watching him, as she counted the seconds.

…

Breathing slowly, she turned her head as Baki made his way to the group from where he was, underground to hide from the onslaught. He shook the sand out of his head, dark red blood staining the top of his white ghutra and flak vest as well.

Oh good. He's here… Finally.

Temari took a more relaxed stance, still not stowing her fan. Baki brushed the sand off of his vest. "Gaara… That was unnecessary," Baki began.

Gaara's steely eyes swiveled to meet his sensei's.

Baki stiffened nearly imperceptibly before continuing. "But… considering the… robbers had bad intentions, but you did not harm… anyone else and the artifact is undamaged, I will withhold punishing you for your uncontrolled bloodlust."

Temari watched her youngest brother's eyes narrow and Kankuro grit his teeth.

"... You are lucky those people you killed had no relation to an ally of the Kazekage's and that the artifact is undamaged, or I would have had to send an unsatisfactory report, you understand that don't you? … You need to control yourself better."

Temari and Kankuro held their breaths. Father, even here, is the one controlling him.

"Just stay out of my way… They should have stayed out my way…" Gaara grated out.

Temari watched as her brother continued to the village that was their destination. Only this time, in front of the rest of the group. And within less than twenty five meters away.